NBA: 2015 Front Office Rankings -- Top executives

ESPN.com

Mar 25, 2015, 12:00 AM ET

We're continuing our front-office rankings with a look at the league's lead basketball decision-makers -- team presidents, general managers and, in some cases, owners -- the people who have the strongest say when it comes to transactions.

(On Thursday, we'll reveal our coach rankings, and on Friday, we'll break down our owner rankings. Click here for our overall rankings, which we unveiled Tuesday.)

We asked our ESPN Forecast panel to rate every team's basketball decision-maker(s). In particular, we asked the voters to rate each team's front-office management on its guidance and leadership in terms of how it affects overall on-court success, both in the short and long term.

Here's how they stack up:

Rank	Team	Rating
1	San Antonio Spurs President: Gregg Popovich \| GM: R.C. Buford	9.87
2	Golden State Warriors GM: Bob Myers \| Consultant: Jerry West \| Owner: Joe Lacob	8.48
3	Houston Rockets GM: Daryl Morey	8.26
4	Miami Heat President: Pat Riley \| GM: Andy Elisburg	8.04
5	Portland Trail Blazers GM: Neil Olshey	7.65
6	Atlanta Hawks GM: Danny Ferry (on indefinite leave) -- in his absence, coach Mike Budenholzer and assistant GM Wes Wilcox have guided basketball ops	7.61
7 (tie)	Dallas Mavericks GM: Donnie Nelson \| Owner: Mark Cuban	7.48
7 (tie)	Oklahoma City Thunder GM: Sam Presti	7.48
9	Boston Celtics GM: Danny Ainge	7.39
10	Toronto Raptors GM: Masai Ujiri \| VP of basketball ops: Jeff Weltman	7.26
11	Cleveland Cavaliers GM: David Griffin \| Owner: Dan Gilbert	7.09
12	Memphis Grizzlies GM: Chris Wallace \| VP of basketball ops: John Hollinger \| Owner: Robert Pera	7.00
13	Indiana Pacers President: Larry Bird \| GM: Kevin Pritchard	6.91
14	Chicago Bulls VP of basketball ops: John Paxson \| GM: Gar Forman	6.78
15	Utah Jazz GM: Dennis Lindsey \| Senior VP of basketball ops: Kevin O'Connor	6.43
16	Milwaukee Bucks GM: John Hammond \| Assistant GM: David Morway	6.26
17	Philadelphia 76ers GM: Sam Hinkie	5.35
18	Phoenix Suns GM: Ryan McDonough \| President: Lon Babby \| Owner: Robert Sarver	5.26
19	Detroit Pistons President: Stan Van Gundy \| GM: Jeff Bower	5.22
20	Washington Wizards President: Ernie Grunfeld	5.17
21	Orlando Magic GM: Rob Hennigan	5.09
22	New Orleans Pelicans GM: Dell Demps	4.96
23	Los Angeles Clippers President: Doc Rivers	4.87
24	Minnesota Timberwolves President: Flip Saunders \| GM: Milt Newton	4.57
25	Charlotte Hornets GM: Rich Cho \| Owner: Michael Jordan	4.39
26	Los Angeles Lakers GM: Mitch Kupchak	4.35
27	Denver Nuggets GM: Tim Connelly	4.04
28	Sacramento Kings GM: Pete D'Alessandro \| Advisor: Chris Mullin \| Owner: Vivek Ranadive	3.91
29	New York Knicks President: Phil Jackson \| VP of basketball ops: Steve Mills	2.70
30	Brooklyn Nets GM: Billy King \| Chairman: Dmitry Razumov	2.48